Tiny Home Montessori Nursery was founded in 1989 in response to a need in the community for an institution dedicated to giving very young children the best possible start to their school career. Our children come from a broad cross section of backgrounds and lifestyles. We are interested in serving children whose parents support our goals.
We follow the Montessori philosophy of education. This is both a philosophy of child growth and a rationale for guiding such growth. It is based on the child's individuality and his innate need to develop intellectual and physical abilities. Through the medium of a carefully prepared environment, the child is allowed to develop ( at his own personal pace ), building a strong sense of independence and self-confidence as his skills increase.
A child has a built-in drive to explore, to investigate, to try, to seek excitement and novelty, to learn by using every one of his senses, to satisfy his boundless curiosity. He has a built-in drive for competency, an inborn desire to do and learn how to do. He manipulates, handles, tries, repeats, investigates and seeks to master as much of his environment as he can, primarily for the pleasure of such activity. Learning can be intrinsically enjoyable, and small children learn voluntarily when their efforts are not distorted by pressure, competition, extrinsic rewards, punishment or fear.
Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), the Italian physician who formulated this method, had a particular genius for observing children as they really were rather than as adults wished them to be. She believed that no human being was educated by another person. "He must do it himself or it will never be done." A truly educated individual continues learning long after the hours and years he spends in the classroom as he is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Dr. Montessori felt that the goal of early childhood education should therefore, not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate his own natural desire to learn.
In the Montessori classroom this objective is approached in two main ways. First, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of learning by his own choice rather than by being forced, and second, by helping him to perfect all his natural tools for learning.
As Maria Montessori developed her work with children, it came to be that children were learning so much from their prepared environment that they were truly educating themselves under the direction of adults. In order to clarify the new process and the new role of the adult in this process, Maria Montessori gave the name "Directress" to the adult instead of teacher. She thought Directress would more clearly describe the role of the adult. Whenever we refer to the Montessori Directress, you will know this is our name in place of "teacher."
The Montessori classroom has no front of the room, and no teacher's desk as a focal point of attention. This is because the stimulation for learning comes from the total environment. The Directress is a keen observer of the individual interests and needs of each child. Her daily work proceeds from her observations rather than from a prepared curriculum. She demonstrates the correct use of materials as they are individually chosen by children. She carefully watches each child's progress and keeps detailed records of his work with the materials. She is trained to recognise periods of readiness. She must sometimes divert a child who chooses material which is beyond his ability, and at other times encourage a child who is hesitant. When a child makes a mistake, she refrains if possible from intervening, and allows him to discover his own error through further manipulation of the self-correcting material.
This group has its own special prepared environment geared towards providing for the physical and psychological developmental needs of the child at this early age. The environment created allows for freedom of movement and the growth of independence. The materials used provide children the opportunity to learn through movement. Emphasis is placed on independence through self-help, motor, sensorial, language and social development. The class has a Directress, an assistant and a helper for about fifteen children.
Children are usually accepted from 21 through 29 months of age. Siblings of children who have attended or are attending Tiny Home are given preference for admission. Children are accepted for the Rainbow group if they are to continue with us, and as such they are reserved a place in the second part of our program which they join when they are about 2½ years old.
The Rainbow Group has its own separate fee structure. Timings are the same as for the older children however initially we recommended that the child should attend from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Children are accepted from an age of 30 months and older. Siblings of children who have attended or are attending Tiny Home, and transfer students from Montessori schools, are given preference for admission. Children moving up from the Rainbow group are always reserved a place in the Montessori program. Children are usually accepted only if they plan to spend at least one full year or more with us.
A Montessori class consists of children of mixed age groups. As a result each individual child always has available to him material for which he is ready. This arrangement also permits younger children to learn from older, and older ones an opportunity to reinforce their own knowledge by helping the younger ones.
The Montessori curriculum is very broad. It covers both traditional and uniquely Montessori subjects. These are divided into five main categories. The first four are Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, and Mathematics. The fifth area we call Culture, which includes: Music appreciation, Creative Arts & Crafts, Poetry, History, Geography, Biology, Botany and Science. No one area is taught in isolation, but rather interdependently, so that children learn the relationships between everyone and everything. The Montessori curriculum is non-graded and non-competitive, allowing children to work and grow in an environment that allows their individual potential to reach its own level, at its own pace, without any negative or judgmental pressure. Because Montessori philosophy encourages children to work to their own level and at their own pace, enrollment in the program is possible at any point during the school year.
Practical
Life The Sensorial
Materials Language
Mathematics
Culture
Social skills
Botany Geography Music, Arts and Crafts
Practical Life is the area of development where the child
is allowed to do what he sees adults doing each and every day.
For example, dressing oneself, cleaning one's house, greeting
people, carrying objects on a tray, pouring water, washing one's
hands and face etc. What adults consider ordinary tasks are
actually exciting to the child as they allow him to imitate
adults. Imitation is one of the child's strongest urges during
his early years. Although these exercises may seem simple and
commonplace, they actually form one of the most important parts
of the Montessori program. They allow the child to perfect his
coordination, lengthen his span of concentration, help him learn
to pay attention to detail, and learn good work habits. They
allow him to create, control, change and care for his physical
environment and his own physical being, and subsequently enable
him to be independent.
The Sensorial Materials. A young child can remain unmoved
by a myriad of sensory impressions in his every day environment.
What he needs is not more and more impressions but the ability to
understand what he is perceiving. The Sensorial exercises are
done with materials which emphasise one particular quality by
isolating one sensorial property: colour, weight, shape, texture,
size, sound, smell, pitch, pressure etc., which can be graded,
matched or contrasted. The Montessori Sensorial Materials help
the child to distinguish, to categorise, and to relate new
information to what he already knows. Dr. Montessori believed
that this process is the beginning of conscious knowledge. It is
brought about by the intelligence working in a concentrated way
on the impressions given by the senses.
Language materials are designed to enable the child to
learn the shapes and phonic sounds of the letters in a way that
is completely independent from his perfection of the muscular
skill necessary for writing with control. At the same time
special but separate materials are used to develop pencil
control. In time the child realises that he can combine the two
skills to make words with a pencil. Dr. Montessori called this
phenomena the "explosion into writing." The Montessori
Language materials are extensive and comprehensive. They lead
towards writing - or the construction of words -first with
equipment such as the Large Movable Alphabet. Reading very
naturally follows the word-building exercises.
Mathematics materials are designed to allow the child to
learn using concrete materials during the years when he enjoys
manipulating equipment, rather than by usually used abstract
methods. In the Montessori environment, a child not only sees the
symbol for 1, 1000, or ½, he can also hold each of the
corresponding quantities in his hand. Later, by combining this
equipment, separating it, sharing it, counting it, and comparing
it, he can demonstrate to himself the basic operations of
arithmetic. These activities gives him the satisfaction of
learning by discovery rather than by being told. Eventually the
child develops an early enthusiasm for the world of numbers.
Culture plays an important part in the Montessori program.
Children gain an awareness of the world around them by exploring
other countries, their customs, food, music, climate, language,
and animals. This helps to raise their consciousness about other
people, to gain an understanding and tolerance, and therefore,
compassion for all people in the world. Activities are often
planned around National Days and celebrations, National costumes
and festivals, greetings in different languages and forms, etc.
Social skills: Good manners are how we relate to each
other as civilised members of any community. Children are not
born with an innate knowledge of why we shake hands ( some social
groups kiss or rub noses ), so we teach them appropriate
greetings for our society. Later, when they are older, they can
learn that not everyone does things the same way as we do but
this does not make them less valuable. Helping each other needs
to be taught as well. Children learn to notice if somebody needs
help and that nobody is too small to be useful.
Botany: Different parts of a leaf, flower or plant each
have specific names. Children learn these during a period when
they are fascinated by interesting words. The exercises are
supplemented by the challenge of fitting together pieces of
corresponding puzzles. Children are encouraged to maintain plants
growing in the classroom and garden.
Geography: A variety of elaborate materials are used to
introduce this subject. The Globes have the continents slightly
raised from a smooth surface. Land, water, and the differently
coloured continents can be learned by touch as well as shape.
There are large jigsaw puzzles with which the child learns the
shapes, names, and relative locations of continents and
countries. Material is used into which water is poured to form
islands, isthmuses, peninsulas, etc.
Music, Arts, and Crafts - are parts of the Montessori
program, follow the Montessori philosophy, and often complement
work going on in other areas of the curriculum.